THE LIFE OF THE RIDDLE

THE LIFE OF THE RIDDLE

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Wife vs. Husband

My husband (albeit wonderful) is the most competitive man on the planet. Everything for him is a competition. He thrives on competition. He lives, breaths, and dreams competition. Me on the other hand I'm not necessarily uncompetitive but for me winning is second to having fun and for him the one can not exist with out the other.

For example the other day Spencer was all spandexed out (oh baby!) and racing home on his bike when he met a competitor. He claims the man began racing and even cheated as in rode through red lights to keep up with him. Luckily his other love and his awesome caves helped him win the race. You can read his side of the story here.

Another race is on! One that Spencer has been playing since he was 5 and me since I was 9. Yes long before we met we were competing against each other for first place. He got an earlier start but to no avail. I'm winning this competition by a long shot. Are you curious? Are you still reading? Are you hoping that the game is strip poker and that this blog takes a different turn? (not likely as I teach high school and I'm always afraid that some of my students read my blog.)

This competition is for most countries visited. I've got 20 under my belt (21 after Greece) and he only has 16. It kills him. He mentions it every few days. I don't think he had ever met a girl more traveled that he had was until he met me.

Now I only mention this because I'm leaving for the summer and I'm going to visit yet another country Greece where Spencer has never been. Consiquently Spencer keeps talking about renting a car while I'm gone and driving down to central America to add all the countries between here and Panama.

I've reminded him that this is not a good idea for several reasons:
a. He only knows one phrase in Spanish: "Que lastima venga venga chica" which means either watch out girl or that what a pity come on girl (both VERY loosely translated.)
b. He looks like a white boy from Utah
c. and most importantly he doesn't have his wife's permission to leave the country

My point is if I or any of you get a ransom note from the Nicaraguan mafia we will know two things:

1. His one line of Spanish couldn't save him (surprise, surprise)
2. He succeeded in driving through Belize, Guatamala, Honduras, Elsalvator and we now are tied for countries.
______my list______________his list______________

1 Austria 1 Austria
2 Belgium 2 Belgium
3 Check Republic 3 Canada
4 Denmark 5 Check Republic
5 England 6 England
6 France 7 France
7 Germany 8 Germany
8 Greece (pending) 9 Ireland
9 Hungary 10 Italy
10 Israel 11 Lichtenstein
11 Italy 12 Luxemburg
12 Lichtenstein 13 Netherlands
13 Luxemburg 14 Poland
14 Mexico 15 Spain
15 Netherlands 16 Switzerland
16 Poland

17 Slovenia

18 Spain

19 Sweden

20 Switzerland

21 Turkey












Red color indicates countries only one of us has visited.






































































4 comments:

Evenstar said...

Oh come on Joanie! You could beat him by more than that! Some of the countries we visited don't even exist anymore! And I thought you had made it to Canada?

Seventh Child said...

Well I haven't been anywhere, save the Western States!

Oma said...

Just tell Spencer to be patient, he'll have a chance to travel some places without you someday, but you both will find that the joy of sharing your travels with the one you love the most far outweighs any competition.

Chelsey Christensen said...

Congratulations on winning. I know how important it is for the wife of a competivite man to have something she is good at. Lets get Kevin and Spencer together so one of them can loose and be humbled.